Non-Childish Tips From Winners Of The Children`S Photo Competition

On October 14th began the work submission for the VI photo contest of the Russian Geographical Society "The Most Beautiful Country". For the second year in a row, as part of the competition, a separate competition is held for young photographers up to 16 years old - "The Most Beautiful Country Through The Eyes Of Children".

Until January 31, 2020, children can upload their photos to photo-children.rgo.ru. Works are accepted in four nominations: "Landscape", "Animal World", "World of People" and "Macroworld". The only condition for the competition is that photographs must be taken in Russia.

The works of the photo contest participants will be evaluated by famous photographers, as well as people from other fields of art - filmmakers, actors, art critics. It is already known, that, apart from the president of the RGS Sergey Shoigu, the jury of the competition will include the director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Marina Loshak, musician and TV presenter Sergey Shnurov, famous photographers Sergey Gorshkov and Sergey Bermenyev.

“In the children's contest, the priority is quality and originality of pictures, not the place of shooting,” says Konstantin Leifer, chairman of the jury of “The Most Beautiful Country” and “The Most Beautiful Country Through The Eyes Of Children”. “If a child has a gorgeous shot with conventional whales, we, of course, note it. But you can see and capture beauty anywhere in the country. You do not have to go to Kamchatka or the Putorana plateau. You can take fantastic photos in the Yaroslavl region. A child has an advantage: he/she does not know what you should or should not do. A child doesn`t care about the golden ratio, he/she takes a shot when he/she thinks something is beautiful. And since it  is more natural, sometimes brilliant pictures are obtained."

As noted by Konstantin Leifer, the Russian Geographical Society hopes that parents will not take photos for their children. “You can’t cancel the parents’ desire for the child to win, and an attempt to, maybe, try and help somehow: stage a shot or say “press now”, or put up a tripod if it’s a photo with complex lighting. And yet we hope that we will have few such cases, " said the chairman of the jury of the photo contest.

We would like to remind you, that last year the winners of the contest “The Most Beautiful Country through the Eyes of Children” were Nikita Pyankov with the picture “Snack” (nomination “Bird World”), Gleb Petukhov with the picture “Cat racket” (nomination “World of people”), Anton Tananykin with the picture “Dinosaurs are Alive” (nomination “Animal World”), Elizaveta Shilimova with the picture “Dancing on the Water” (nomination “Macroworld”), and Daria Rumyantseva with the picture “Russian Field” (nomination “Landscape”).

“After winning the competition, my attitude to my own work has changed,” says Elizaveta Shilimova from Vladimir. “Before that, I had no confidence that I was moving in the right direction. Now I want to take more pictures, look for something unusual in every moment. It seems to me, that the jury pays attention to unusual pictures. It is important to note, that things, that seem ordinary at first glance, can be amazing from an unusual angle. Now I plan to take part in the adult competition "The Most Beautiful Country". I have the most liking for the “Macrocosm” and “Landscape” nominations. I hope someday I will be able to take photos for the “Wild Animals” nomination.”

"The photo “Russian field” was taken long ago and by chance. On the way to our dacha  we saw an unusual place and stopped to take a couple of pictures for the family archive. Then, I didn’t even intend to send pictures to any competitions. I advise everyone to take a camera with them anytime, anywhere, and just look around. I think that the jury of the competition appreciates the uniqueness of the moment. Something that you don’t see every day!” Daria Rumyantseva from Kolomna shares.“After winning the contest, I was asked for interviews, and the head of my city handed me a letter of appreciation  and a certificate for my own photo exhibition at one of the youth centers. This year I am still eligible to participate in the children's category of  "The Most Beautiful Country",  and then I will try to compete with professional photographers in the adult competition. "

“I study at the Junior Academy of Sciences of Sevastopol. Last year we had a task - to make a photo report on what Sevastopol looks like in December, when preparing for the New Year. Therefore, when I got out to the city, I always took a camera with me. That is how I took the photograph, that I sent to the contest,” says Gleb Petukhov from Sevastopol. “It seems to me that the picture should not be staged. It should convey the atmosphere of the place. And the photographer him/herself  should like what he/she photographs. You need a desire to share what you saw: the atmosphere and situation. It seems to me that nature and plants are easier to shoot, than people or animals. But in the end, people and animals are more interesting. "